We Got What We Deserved - Gill

John Gill watched his side take a huge step towards Premier Division football as Dundalk defeated title rivals Waterford United at the RSC last Friday evening. It was the first time in fourteen months that Waterford had lost at home as the Lilywhites took maximum points away from a top four ground for the first time this term. It was also Dundalk’s first clean-sheet since early August and their first away victory since late July. To add to that, it was their first win-to-nil in near on three months.

Many unwanted records bit the dust thanks to Paul Smyth’s late winner, and all that led to a very pleased manager afterwards. “We got what we deserved tonight, because I thought we dominated the game,” Gill admitted to dundalkfc.com at the final whistle. “We looked stronger, I thought we were hungrier and fitter, and I thought we kept our focus and our discipline well, because we could have lost it. Our goalkeeper took a head butt and a kick off one of their physios - it was a disgrace and it could have sparked a riot. But we kept our focus and stuck to our game-plan. At times, it wasn’t pretty. But what we maybe lack in technical ability, we more than make up for in effort.

“I thought (David) Cassidy was immense in the first-half with the runs that he made off Trevor (Vaughan). Then the substitution with Smythy - sometimes they work for you, sometimes they don’t. He’s waited a long time for that. People think I have agendas against players - I don’t. I try to utilise my squad to the best of my ability, and I try to do the job as best I can. The problem now is to try to dampen down all the hysteria, because everyone will be thinking it’s over again, and it’s not. We have another massive game and probably a more difficult game than the last two next Thursday against Limerick. We should have Tiarnán Mulvenna back, we’ll have Robbie Farrell back and Dessie Baker may come back into the equation.

“All the credit must go to the players, full credit to them - they deserve everything they get. We’ve played against ten men before this season and we’ve struggled. I thought in the second-half that we didn’t panic. We got the ball out wide, we created chances and could have had one or two more. We had a great chance from a corner cleared off the line, we had another one disallowed for offside and I think, overall, on chances made in the game, we were excellent. We worked on a great set-piece in the first-half, a ball over the top to Cassidy and the ‘keeper pulled off a great save.

“All I can say is that nothing has changed. People may say we have changed, but we haven’t. We’re still the same people and we’re still the same group of players. Just, maybe now, we’re getting a little rub of the green and getting players back fit at the right time, and maybe getting players believing at the right time. When my back is to the wall and when I’m backed into a corner, that’s when I probably come out and show my best. But I haven’t changed. I can’t go across the white line and play the game for the players. Players have to take responsibility, and maybe since the Wexford game, we’ve had a few little heart-to-hearts and we’ve done a couple of things a little bit differently.

“But, as I’ve said before, I’m not going to get too hysterical when we win games or lose them, and I’m not going to take too much credit when we win games, because it’s about players. It’s not really about me. It’s about the eleven that go out across that white line and the shift that they put in and the belief that they bring to the game. Okay, I’ve got to make some tough decisions and make some big calls, which I’m not afraid to do, and I’ll continue to do that. We’re in a good position. I said at the start of the season that 72 points will be there or thereabouts and it looks like that’s going to be the way it is. But we have a very difficult game against Limerick next Thursday. They’re a team that has caused us major problems, but we’ve got to bring a little bit of belief into it. It’s up to Shelbourne now to go and do their work as well.

“I think some people think I turn up and pick names out of a hat, but we worked on a system for the game and I thought Cassidy was brilliant in the job he done. He played that game all his schoolboy life. The back four, I thought, was back to being solid. A clean-sheet was important for us. But we won’t get too over excited, we’ll keep our heads down and we’ll try to focus on our next game. I set the players a challenge with five games to go. I said ‘there’s a little five game mini-league to go, and if we can be on top of that league after five games, we’ll win the league’.

“Managing expectation is the problem now. Three weeks ago, there was people calling for my head, there was all sorts of innuendos and people probably lost faith in me. You’ll listen to all the stuff now tomorrow and I’ll be Jose Mourinho again. Football is so fickle like that. Now, I’ve got to accept it. It’s the game I’m in, but I just think we all should have a more balanced view of things, in adversity and victory. We’ve become really, really close as a group over the past couple of weeks and I think that transpires onto the pitch.

“It hurt me that there were rumours going around that I had lost the dressing-room. That questioned my integrity and it questioned my professionalism. I haven’t told the players what to say, but some of them have come out - you read David Crawley’s comments in the papers today. I don’t tell players what to say. Obviously, there will be players that are disappointed, but I guarantee you, deep down, they know it’s nothing personal, it’s football, and they’ll all back me.

“I think the players have done their talking for me on the pitch, because I have been hurt - I can’t say that I haven’t - but it has made me a stronger person. But nothing is won yet. People have said that we choked against big teams, but we have the best record against the top four. Now, I know we’ve let ourselves down in other games. But, I said it at the start of the season and I won’t change it now, this is the best bunch of players that I’ve had, as regards character, honesty and professionalism. I’d also like to say that the crowd were magnificent. It reminded me a little bit of the playoff here two years ago. And that’s what we need. We need the supporters to get behind us in every game now.”